Voyage into the Real World: Working with Community Partners and Local Funders

Ball State’s Donna Browne led SPA’s colloquium on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 in the Arts and Journalism Building.

Browne's lecture focused on how to work with community partners and local funders.

Reasons to look for a community partner or local funder

What's in it for you?

• Builds a useful, long-term relationship

  

  Browne begins her lecture.

• Advances research/P&T
• Enhances BSU community engagement goals
• Student opportunities
• Good publicity 
• Personal Satisfaction

What's in it for them?

• Advances mission
• Benefits clients 
• Benefits operations 
• Saves money 
• Saves time
• Good publicity 

Finding the Best Community Partner for You

The first step is to identify several organizations doing similar work or with a similar mission and clients to your project.

Tips for identifying organizations:

• Talk to BSU colleagues
• Talk to BSU's Office of Community Engagement and Office of Entrepreneurial Learning 
• Talk to Community colleagues 
• Talk to the Community Foundation 
• Talk to local champions

Warning signs you may need to find a new partner:

• Partner delays or lacks commitment 
• Partner wants too many changes 
• Detrimental potential for BSU
• Little relevance to students' needs/desires

Now, you can't expect a possible partner to agree immediately. It is important to allow plenty of time for discussion, as they will need to consider any staff demands, contact potential donors, or get their board to approve.

Partnership Concerns

It is important to make sure your project does not fail to establish meaningful relationships with partners and clients or fail to create mutually beneficial projects, activities and deliverables with your partner. In order to ensure success it is important to consider the following:

The audience engages with Brown

• Muncie has it's own identities and internal divisions, and the community sometimes sees researchers as outsiders. You may not fit in due to your:
• Origin 
• Demographic profile 
• Life experience 
• Community knowledge 
• Community partners do not always see your "problem" as their problem and resent being "rescued."
• Local funders are not interested in academic research 
• Academic research must be a by-product of a partnership beneficial to the community 

Next Steps

1. Contact the Program Officer to review your idea and its community impact. Include your community partner in the meeting and be receptive to ongoing discussion, revision, and feedback.
2. Develop a concept paper focusing on community impact, awareness, or participation.
3. Work with SPA to confirm your project aligns with the funder's goals/programs, and be receptive to the feedback from your proposal manager.
4. Read the guidelines, review the funder's mission, and do what they say! 

For more questions reach out to us or Donna Browne! 

Browne is a grant writer for Ball State University. She works specifically with the Center for Energy Research Education and Service, but is more than willing to help those from other departments. Brown can be contacted at dbrowne@bsu.edu.

SPA can be reached at spadmin@bsu.edu or 765-285-1600.